Jacob Tingen, L'12
Before law school, Jacob Tingen, L'12, became skilled at web development while working for an entrepreneurial office that handled legal claims and online document management. This work experience had a significant impact on Jacob's next steps. Having set his sights on law school, Jacob planned to study technology issues, such as electronic record management solutions, within the context of law.
He says, "that experience with technology has led me to be more interested in where law and technology intersect." As a University of Richmond law student, he has focused on business and technology law classes, including e-discovery law, information governance, intellectual property, copyright, and trademark.
As a law student, Jacob has seized the opportunity to use his technical background to help the legal community. Jacob began providing web development services to law professors and several non-profit organizations. As a research assistant during his first summer of law school, he worked with Melissa Goeman, former law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and former President and Co-Director of the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center (MAJDC). For this project, Jacob was asked to research information on juvenile defense centers and build a website for MAJDC, a non-profit organization that educates attorneys on how to better defend juveniles. "The center wanted to join other regional juvenile defense centers in providing resources online." Jacob designed a website that has grown to include information about the organization, training for defenders, and community resources.
More recently, Jacob worked with Margaret Bacigal, University of Richmond Clinical Professor of Law and chair of the Virginia Bar Association Commission on the Needs of Children, to develop a website for the Commission. Currently in the beta stage of development, the Commission's website will provide resources to physicians and attorneys so they can better represent the legal needs of children. The mission of the site is "to provide information to health care professionals to help them understand how federal and state laws affect the delivery of special education services to children in Virginia."
Jacob explains that the Commission wanted to "provide an outlet to post resources for mental health providers so that they can get the right language in their letters, have the right forms to fill out, and give parents the right direction so that their children get the care they need in the public school system." During summer 2011, Jacob met with members of the Commission, including Margaret Bacigal and William Reichhardt, principal in the Fairfax, Virginia, firm of William B. Reichhardt & Associates and long-time supporter of legal advocacy for children. Jacob designed a website that has the flexibility to expand as more online resources become available and make it possible for committee members to easily add content as the site grows. Jacob adds, "It's a great thing that [the Commission] is doing, and I was pretty excited to help them."
While working on these non-profit web projects, Jacob identified a need for quality and affordable web services within the legal community. It didn't take him long to provide a solution to that problem. In 2011, Jacob launched Pixel Pro Quo, a website that caters to law organizations—both commercial and non-profit—by offering "do-it-yourself" website packages at a low price.
Jacob says, "Pixel Pro Quo's mission is to provide affordable website technologies that are user friendly to the legal community." He wants to make it possible for small- to medium-sized law firms in need of a professional web presence to be able to launch a well-designed website in a short amount of time. Customers have the ability to set up and make changes to their websites without having to rely on a web agency for assistance. But technical support is also available—Jacob teamed up with a business partner to help with providing support to their customers. The company offers additional services, such as online document management and custom web design packages for organizations looking for more personalization. Pixel Pro Quo also strives to help non-profit legal organizations by providing discounted, and in some cases free, web services. "Non-profits—people who help people—shouldn't have to pay to get online. I'm definitely happy to help more non-profits," Jacob adds.
In addition to being a law student and freelance web designer, Jacob worked on the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT) and regularly volunteered at the Hispanic Immigration Clinic sponsored by Williams Mullen. After graduating this May, Jacob hopes to find employment as an information governance attorney. He also plans to continue helping non-profits with web development and offering affordable web services to the legal community through Pixel Pro Quo.